US Supreme Court will consider ministerial exception doctrine in discrimination cases

The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari Wednesday to a pair of California employee discrimination cases that challenge the notion Catholic schoolteachers cannot sue their employers because they're considered ministers.

In both Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 19-267, and St. James School v. Biel, 19-348, the high court will decide if the teachers' positions fall under the ministerial exception doctrine, which prohibits civil rights laws from interfering with church employment policies under the First Amendment's free exercise and non-establishment clauses.

The Supreme Court consolidated the cases and will allot one hour total for oral arguments, court documents show. A date has not been set.

Reached via email Wednesday, Joseph M. Lovretovich of JML Law APLC in Woodland Hills, who is representing both plaintiffs, said he was disappointed with the high court's decision. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned decisions on both cases earlier this year, holding neither plaintiffs Agnes Morrissey-Berru or Kristen Biel fell under the exception despite having significant religious responsibilities at their schools.

"We feel the 9th Circuit got it right and are sorry to see justice delayed, but I feel confident that we will ultimately prevail," Lovretovich said.

Calls to Linda Miller Savitt at Ballard Rosenberg Golper & Savitt LLP, who is representing Our Lady of Guadalupe, were not returned by press time Wednesday.

"If courts can second-guess a Catholic school's judgment about who should teach religious beliefs to fifth graders, then neither Catholics nor any other religious group can be confident in their ability to convey the faith to the next generation," Montserrat Alvarado, the vice president and executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund who is representing St. James, said in a statement.

Both cases share a familiar yet complicated trial history. In St. James, Biel alleged the Torrance-based Catholic school fired her after she requested a leave of absence to undergo treatment for cancer. A federal district court found for the school before the 9th Circuit overturned the decision in late June, just weeks after Biel succumbed to the disease, court records show.

Similar to St. James, a federal district court sided with Our Lady of Guadalupe, holding ministerial exception applied in the termination of Morrissey-Berru, who alleged the Hermosa Beach school fired her because she was 65, according to court documents. Again, the 9th Circuit reversed the lower court, documents show.

In filing their writ of certiorari, both schools asked the high court to adhere to previous court decisions that ruled ministerial exception applied to employees who performed "important religious functions," even if they were not members of the clergy. Both teachers taught Catholic tenets and led their classes in prayer, according to court documents.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 the First Amendment takes precedence in employment discrimination matters when it reversed the 6th Circuit's decision involving a minister who alleged her firing was discriminatory.

"The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the unanimous decision. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, 565 U.S. 171.

The question is whether Biel or Morrissey-Berru qualify as ministers for the purposes of the exception and if their duties in a religious school equate with the years of seminary education and field training needed to become ordained, said Joan C. Williams, distinguished professor of law and director of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings School of Law. "Obviously, you're not going to limit ministerial exception, but you have to limit it to people who are ministers," Williams said. "It's been widely understood that it only applies to clergy, and if they're clearly not clergy, you're saying 'open sesame' to discrimination in a clerical context."